So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
I Corinthians 13:13
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If it be so, our God Whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image which you have set up.”
Daniel 3:16-18
Good morning Prayer Team! If you’ve never read the Old Testament book of Daniel, I encourage you to do so. Read a Bible that has annotations, so it will help you understand what you are reading. Today’s reflection is from a passage in Daniel 3. First, a little backdrop to the story.
The Jews are God’s chosen people. They inherited the promised land of Canaan, and for many generations lived there. They lived under judges and kings, the land became divided into Northern and Southern Kingdoms, and eventually, the Kingdoms of Israel were conquered by the Babylonians, and the Jews were exiled to Babylon. They lost their homeland. They lost their freedom. And worst of all, they thought they had lost their God. Because their belief was that God resided in the temple and so when the temple of Jerusalem fell, along with the rest of their country, the people thought they had lost God too.
The Babylonians did not treat the exiled Jews well. There were three faithful young men—Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego—who still believed in God, and who had garnered the favor of King Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king. He saw that they were fed and treated well. He even made them special advisors.
King Nebuchadnezzar decided to build a statue of gold and require people to worship it. If they refused to bow to it, he threatened to kill them in a burning fiery furnace. When the command came for people to bow down to the statue, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego did not. Then people came and told the king that these three did not bow to the statue. The king called the three young men before him. He was in a furious rage and threatened with death in the fiery furnace, taunting them with the words “And who is the god that will deliver you out of my hands?” (Daniel 3:15)
Their response was not one only of defiance but of faith. They answered the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace; and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king.But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image which you have set up.” They were putting their faith in God, but they were also ceding to God’s will for them. They believed that God could, and would, deliver them from the fiery furnace. But they also said, that even if God did not deliver them, if it was His will that they do not survive the fiery furnace, that their faith in Him would still not be shaken.
The result of this conversation was that the three youths were thrown into the fiery furnace. The king was so angry he ordered the furnace heated to seven times its normal level. The furnace was so hot that the men that cast them into it died. A fourth man appeared in the furnace with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, he had the appearance of an angel. The four men walked in the midst of the flames, unburned. Then the king released them, blessed their God, and promoted them. Their faith was rewarded.
What is profound here is that these three men were facing certain death. Their odds of survival were non-existent. And from the get-go, before the outcome could possibly be known to them, they proclaimed a faith that would not crumble regardless of the outcome. If God delivered them, they would believe in Him. And if He did not, they would still believe. This is an important and critical lesson. Faith is not believing when one gets the outcomes he hopes for. Faith is believing even when the desired outcome does not happen. This statement of the three youths—we believe that God will deliver us, but even if He doesn’t, we will not crumble—is important for us as Christians, to have in our minds at the beginning of any challenge, especially when dealing with serious illness.
I have posed three questions: Do you believe in God? Do you believe in the goodness of God? Do you believe that God is good to you? These are powerful questions to answer on the first day of a crisis, (especially a medical crisis) when one is facing some kind of “fiery furnace” experience. These are powerful questions to answer when one is in the “furnace” hoping to survive. These are powerful questions to answer when one survives the “furnace.” And most important, they are critical questions to answer when one realizes that he or she is not going to escape the furnace, when their desired outcome is not going to happen.
Faith is not built in the cool mist of a waterfall, where one can relax and enjoy the view. Faith is built when standing in front of a “fiery furnace”, believing that God will enter with us, and protect us. Faith is when we enter the furnace and realize that God’s will is not to save us from that, but to deliver us to something better, faith is the belief that there is something better, even better than the thing we had hoped for. Faith is not being disappointed in an outcome but hopeful that God has an even greater outcome in our future.
Three of the most powerful words of Scripture come from 3:18, “But if not.” Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego said to the king, in the face of almost certain death, “We believe our God will deliver us our of your hand. But if not, we will still believe in Him!” “But, if not,” is the equivalent of “Thy will be done,” an explanation of trust in God and a release of a situation into His hands and according to His will.
Think of the worst disappointments of your life—are there moments that weaken your faith? Or strengthen it? May we each have the strength to remain faithful, even in the disappointing outcomes.
Lord, be with me in my trials and challenges. I pray that You will walk with me and deliver me from them. But if not, I will still believe in You. May Your will be done in my life, even when it goes against my will. Help me to be able to faithfully say this all the days of my life. Help me to see Your goodness, and Your goodness towards me, in all times and in all situations. Be with those who stand at the doorway to the fiery furnace, and those who are already in it. Give them faith and courage and steadfastness, so that whatever the outcome, they persevere with faith. Amen.
May we have the faith of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, when we face “fiery furnace” moments in our lives.
